An adventure narrated by Thomas Wingfield, an Englishman whose experiences include having his mother murdered, a brush with the Spanish Inquisition, shipwreck, and slavery before unwillingly joining a Spanish expedition to South America. The novel tells the fictionalized story of the first interactions between the South American natives and European explorers, including a number of misunderstandings, prejudice on the part of the Spaniards, and ultimately open war.